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Schweinsteiger calls off talks

Bastian Schweinsteiger's agent is reported to have pulled out of talks with Real Madrid.

By Lucas Brown

Last Updated: 25/11/08 1:20pm

Bastian Schweinsteiger's agent is reported to have pulled out of talks with Real Madrid after the news that a meeting was due to take place this was leaked to the German media.

Kicker published the story on Monday that Los Merengues' technical secretary, Miguel Angel Portugal, was due to hold preliminary negotiations and that upset the player's representative.

The 24-year-old's contract with Bayern Munich is due to expire at the end of the season and Madrid were hoping to make the first move after interest from the likes Juventus and Manchester United was also made public.

Portugal was scheduled to fly to the Bavarian capital for talks on Thursday, but that has now been called off after reports of the meeting appeared in the German press.

Madrid have now insisted that they were only keen to discover whether Schweinsteiger was keen to leave Bayern or whether he was waiting for an offer from them.

"We only wanted to know if the player would leave at the end of the season, but he is not someone we are looking at for January," a club insider told AS.

The priority for Madrid is a striker in the winter transfer window and sporting director Predrag Mijatovic has been charged with securing the services of a goalscorer.

Bayern aim

Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge insists the German giants will go to their financial limit to keep Schweinsteiger at the Allianz Arena, but admits that may not be enough to prevent him leaving.

Rummenigge told Bild: "Bastian belongs to Bayern. He has become great here.

"We will fight for him and go up to the limit of what is feasible in order to keep him.

"It is clear to us that the interest in a free Germany international is very big. We cannot help that there will be talks.

"We simply do not have the financial means from TV marketing like for example Real Madrid."